My brother was a true boy in spirit. Everything he did was rough and tumble, dirty and gross. Sweet kid, but he spent far too much time perfecting puking sounds and police car siren noises. It was no surprise that out of all my friends (and their siblings) he kept the grossest collection ever — a wall full of dead spiders staring at you is cool right?
My mother tried for years to get him to thin his collection down, to simplify it for lack of better words. He just wouldn't budge. Every spider he found he would race to find a jar in which to contain it. He'd feed it for awhile, but like most small creatures in jars, they eventually die. Although it's probably more disturbing that he was a serial spider killer, I was never able to get past the wall of weird when you walked into his room.
There sat jar upon jar of dead spiders staring at you. Now you'd think that they'd all be small spiders because he was a small boy, but that's not the case. My parents lived on a wooded creek and there were some that were as large as your hand is today. Totally, totally creepy.
Is there anything you hope your child doesn't want to collect? Are you anti-insect? Are you against a rock collection that will surely bring dust and occupy all of that precious under bed storage space? Share your nightmare collection in the comments.
(Image: Flickr member vintage dept licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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I don't have a problem with the gross out factor of collecting spiders but I would not be at all ok with my child killing any animal to add to a collection! I know most children go through a squish the bug phase of some kind that is completely different from allowing them to keep a trophy collection of animals that are tortured or starved to death. Sorry, if this sounds judgmental. I honestly do not mean it that way. I am just describing what my own parenting decision would be in this case.
Spiders. That's my nightmare collection right there. Ickety ick ick.
anything!
"collections" make me crazy.
I was a little girl who collected spiders and insects. And I grew up to be an entomologist. I'll always remember my parents and uncles encouraging my interest and I hope I'll never discourage my kids from following their passions. And, please can we stop the attitude that bugs and spiders are icky?!
Good point, galbella! I mentioned that in my original post too but cut it because I was already so ranty sounding. ;)
It seems like what some fear or are discusted by others arent in the slightest. perhaps we can come together and balance out irrational fears instead of saying its my way or the highway.
I agree I hope I never discourage my kids from things they find intreasting.
I just hope any potential collection doesn't pose a storage problem.
The thing that bothers me is that in the photo, the labels clearly do not match the specimens!
"The thing that bothers me is that in the photo, the labels clearly do not match the specimens!"
Yes! I just couldn't figure out why the thing in the middle was labeled grasshopper (and then I noticed the other two) and it totally distracted me from anything else.
Hee hee. Funny that I, the entomologist, didn't even notice that!
Compromise. Have your kid take pictures of the cool bugs instead, and keep them in an album.
Being interested in bugs is a great way for kids to be tempted into the sciences. So for the bug phobic out there - I implore you to grit your teeth, grin, and be happy your kid doesn't share your fears!
One bonus to the photo method is that kids can "keep" cool bugs/animals/etc without killing them.
I really dont have any problems with my soon to be first (still cookin') wanting to explore and collect from his/her environment but the one thing that I struggle with it I have a worm phobia (I literately can't eat any spaghetti noodles or long pasta because it weirds me out too much and I avoid looking at gummy worms in the store among other things). My husband and I have talked a bit and I'm still not sure how I'm going to mentally handle it when my kid goes digging in the backyard and finds some wiggly little friends.
"The thing that bothers me is that in the photo, the labels clearly do not match the specimens!"
That's all I could think of as well....
I work at a nature center, and a lot of adults are all "ewww snakes!!" I see this every day, and it really does influence how the children are willing (or not) to interact with the snakes. Don't let your fears bias your children. Snakes, bugs, and all the "ickys" are there for a reason!